This is the twice-per-month electronic newsletter for basic, preclinical and translational research news related to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Please forward freely. Direct comments or questions to Joanna Downer, PhD, in the Office of Corporate Communications (410-614-5105, jdowner1@jhmi.edu).
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IN THIS ISSUE:
+ Stem Cells' Electric Abilities Might Help Their Safe Clinical Use
+ A Century of Brain Science at Johns Hopkins
+ New Drug Target Identified for Fighting Parkinson's Disease
NEWS BRIEFS:
Hiatus for the JHM Science e-Newsletter
Rodent Breeding Seminar Nov. 29
Grant Writing Workshop Starts Dec. 6
AWARDS AND HONORS:
Guggino To Receive Tulcin Award
Wagner To Co-Direct Muscular Dystrophy Center
Hoke Receives ANA's Denny-Brown Award
IN THE NEWS:
Phil Beachy in Forbes
Sol Snyder in the Baltimore Sun
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Do you have an interesting research finding about one month from publication or presentation? Send manuscripts to Joanna Downer at jdowner1@jhmi.edu or fax to 410-614-8951. Information about awards and honors received by laboratory personnel and others is welcomed also.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
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10/20/05
Stem Cells' Electric Abilities Might Help Their Safe Clinical Use
Researchers from Johns Hopkins have discovered the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents.
If researchers could selectively block some of these channels in implanted cells derived from stem cells, they may be able to prevent potential tumor development. The paper appears Aug. 9 online in the journal Stem Cells.
"A major concern for human ESC-based therapies is the potential for engineered grafts to go haywire after transplantation and form tumors, for instance, due to contamination by only a few undifferentiated human ESCs," says Ronald A. Li, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and senior author of the study. "Our discovery of functional ion channels, which are valves in a cell's outer membrane allowing the passage of charged atoms, the basis of electricity, provides an important link to the differentiation, or maturation, and cell proliferation, or growth of human ESCs."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/10_21a_05.html
Stem Cells (Published online 9 Aug 2005)
http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org/cgi/content/abstract/2004-0299v1
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10/20/05
A Century of Brain Science at Johns Hopkins
What's in a name? At Johns Hopkins, a formal Department of Neuroscience was founded 25 years ago, but the institution's contributions to understanding and studying the brain started three quarters of a century before that, in 1906.
The long history of brain sciences at Johns Hopkins and the many contributions of the institution's researchers are outlined in the Oct. 20 issue of Neuron by the first and only director the Hopkins department has ever had. Solomon Snyder, MD, took the reins of the fledgling department on July 1, 1980.
"There were enclaves of scientists and physicians studying the brain in various departments at Hopkins well before 1980," recalls Snyder, who came to Hopkins in 1965 for his clinical residency in psychiatry and never left.
"But creating the department allowed people studying the brain in one way -- by studying what brain cells do for instance -- to work in close proximity and share their knowledge with those using different techniques and approaches," he continues. "Together with the three brain-centered clinical departments, Hopkins has an exceptionally robust environment in which to study the brain."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/11_03a_05.html
Neuron 20 Oct. 2005;48(2):201-211.
http:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2005.10.005
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10/31/05
New Drug Target Identified for Fighting Parkinson's Disease
Researchers at Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering (ICE) have discovered a protein that could be the best new target in the fight against Parkinson's disease since the brain-damaging condition was first tied to loss of the brain chemical dopamine.
Over the past year, the gene for this protein, called LRRK2 ("lark-2"), has emerged as perhaps the most common genetic cause of both familial and unpredictable cases of Parkinson's disease. Until now, however, no one has known for sure what the LRRK2 protein did in brain cells or whether interfering with it would be possible.
Now, after studying the protein in the lab, Johns Hopkins researchers report that the huge LRRK2 protein is part of a class of proteins called kinases and, like other members of the family, helps control other proteins' activities by transferring small groups called phosphates onto them. The researchers also report that two of the known Parkinson's-linked mutations in the LRRK2 gene increase the protein's phosphate-adding activity. The findings were published online Nov. 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We know that small molecules can interfere with this kind of activity, so LRRK2 is an obvious target for drug development," says Ted Dawson, MD, PhD, co-director of the Neural Regeneration and Repair Program within ICE and a leader of the study. "This discovery is going to have a major impact on the field. It's going to get people talking about kinase activity."
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/11_18_05.html
PNAS 15 Nov. 2005;102(46):16842-16847.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/46/16842
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NEWS BRIEFS:
Hiatus for the JHM Science e-Newsletter -- Joanna Downer, PhD, assistant director of science communication at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the writer and editor of the JHM Science e-Newsletter, is leaving Hopkins as of Jan 1, 2006. The JHM Science e-Newsletter will likely cease production at that point and will resume in some form when a replacement is found. Until then, find news about Johns Hopkins research at
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/index.html
Rodent Breeding Seminar Nov. 29 -- The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee seminar series continues with "Rodent Breeding: Getting Effective Results and Maintaining Control," to be presented by Becky Bradley and Keyata Thompson at noon, Tuesday, Nov. 29, in Ross 403. For other upcoming seminars, visit
http://www.jhu.edu/animalcare/training4.html
Grant Writing Workshop Starts Dec. 6 -- The Professional Development Office is beginning a multi-day grant writing workshop for new or junior faculty at 8 a.m., Dec. 6. The $1100 registration fee for the workshop is payable via tuition remission for faculty. For more information or to register for this workshop, email jhmipdo@jhmi.edu.
http://jhuniverse.hcf.jhu.edu/~pdo/Classes%20for%20Faculty.html
AWARDS AND HONORS:
Guggino To Receive Tulcin Award -- The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has selected William Guggino, PhD, professor of physiology and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, to receive the 2006 Doris F. Tulcin Award. The Award is administered at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) and is given to the nation's outstanding cystic fibrosis scientist. Guggino was selected for his interantional scientific leadership in the cellular physiology of cystic fibrosis and in therapeutic interventions, according to Eric Sorscher, MD, director of UAB's Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center. There will be a reception banquet at UAB on Jan. 31, 2006, and an award ceremony and symposium Feb. 1.
Wagner To Co-Direct Muscular Dystrophy Center -- Kathryn Wagner, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology, will co-direct one of three new Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Centers with H. Lee Sweeney, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania. The center, headquartered at Penn, includes researchers at Johns Hopkins, the University of Florida-Gainesville, and the National Institute on Neuromuscular Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Research efforts will focus on exploring new strategies for treating a variety of muscular dystrophies. The center is funded by NINDS, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Hoke Receives ANA's Denny-Brown Award -- Ahmet Hoke, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and of neuroscience and director of the neuromuscular division at Johns Hopkins, was presented the Derek Denny-Brown Award by the American Neurological Association on Sept. 27 at the association's annual meeting in San Diego. The award is given annually to a young member of the association who is deemed to have achieved a significant stature in neurological research and who is anticipated to continue to make major contributions to the field of neurology.
http://www.aneuroa.org/index.php?submenu=Awards&src=gendocs&link=DerekDennyBrown
IN THE NEWS:
Phil Beachy on Hedgehog signaling in Forbes. "The curious case of the one-eyed sheep," by Matthew Herper, Forbes, Nov. 28, 2005.
http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2005/1128/069.html
http://www.jhu.edu/clips/2005_11/15/sheep.html
(Must be at a Hopkins computer to access this page.)
Sol Snyder on stepping down as neuroscience department director in the Baltimore Sun. "Getting Inside Your Head," Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 6, 2005.
http://www.jhu.edu/clips/2005_11/07/getting.html
(Must be at a Hopkins computer to access this page.)
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Find "Change" and "Basics" online from a Hopkins computer:
http://www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/change
Visit the "Research WebNotes" newsletter online:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/webnotes/
For more news from Hopkins, see:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/index.html
Upcoming lectures and seminars:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/faculty_staff/scicalendar.html
Find other news stories about Hopkins at:
http://www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org and click on "News Clips"
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--JHMI--
